Natural Remedies for Anxiety: Do They Really Work?

Natural Remedies for Anxiety: Finding Relief Holistically

According to the NIH, approximately 20% of adults in the U.S. experience anxiety, with rates higher among women. While psychiatric medications and talk therapy can help some people, many seek alternative approaches—either as adjunctive treatments to medications they already take or as a primary method to avoid side effects and address the root causes of their anxiety.

 

At Graceful Mind Institute, we offer anxiety care that takes the whole person into account. This means we strive to find and address the underlying cause of anxiety, which is often multifaceted. Holistic care is about addressing the full picture—physiology, environment, and mental, emotional patterns—so that the need for long-term interventions may decrease over time.  Read on to find some natural approaches to anxiety that may be involved in a holistic plan.

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What Is Anxiety? Understanding the Basics

Anxiety is a state of excessive worry, fear, or stress that interferes with daily life. Everyone experiences stress, but for some, anxiety becomes persistent, intrusive, or disproportionate to the situation. People with anxiety may struggle with focus, memory, or performance, and may make life choices to avoid feared situations.

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Physical manifestations of anxiety can show up as headaches, insomnia, elevated blood pressure, digestive disturbances, increased infections and pain. The function of our nervous system is influenced by our own thought patterns, genetics, environment exposures, past trauma, hormones, blood sugar, chronic illness, and even infections. Understanding anxiety as a whole-body experience is crucial when considering natural or holistic approaches—because treatments that target only one aspect of anxiety often provide temporary or incomplete relief without addressing underlying causes.

 

 

Do Natural Remedies for Anxiety Work?

The term “natural remedy” often suggests a quick fix. Some natural approaches can indeed calm anxiety rapidly, but lasting relief typically requires a multifaceted strategy. Many studies on natural remedies focus on acute effects rather than long-term holistic care.  There is a strong body of evidence for meditation, mindfulness, and certain herbs, nutrients, and mental practices decreasing anxiety.

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One helpful framework is acute vs. long-term remedies:

• Acute remedies provide immediate relief during high-anxiety moments. Examples include breathing exercises, meditation, certain herbal formulas, specific nutrients or aromatherapy. These can be an important part of a well rounded treatment plan, but rarely address the underlying cause on their own.

• Long-term remedies aim to reshape the body’s and mind’s responses to stress. These include nutritional interventions, consistent mindfulness or somatic practices, shifting thought patterns, and identifying and addressing other factors such as hormone or metabolic imbalance, circadian rhythm issues, infections, and toxic exposures. These approaches may take longer but can create sustained improvement.

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Natural remedies are most effective when used in the right context for the right person.  If just looking for quick fix remedies, the opportunity for deeper healing is often missed and results are disappointing. Holistic care ensures that treatments are matched to each person’s physiology, lifestyle, and long-term goals.  At Graceful Mind Institute NP PS we are not protocol driven, but person driven.

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Natural Calming Remedies: At-Home Solutions

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There is incredible evidence that how we practice using and relating to our mind, body, and spirit has a profound effect on the nervous system.  What we practice, so we become.  There are many shifts that can be made at home without medication that can change the brain so profoundly that changes are visible on imaging.  Supporting you in building a practice that nourishes your mind and spirit is one of the things we love to do and the beauty is that there are many ways to do this.  Like other practices, some at home practices are great for creating those long term shifts and others are better for addressing acute anxiety in the moment.

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Breathing Exercises and Mindfulness Techniques

Slow mindful breathing and other mindfulness practices including meditation can reduce the body’s stress response in the moment.  Long term practice can change the brain to decrease anxious patterns.  If a person considers themselves to be spiritual, deepening their connection with a practice that feels in alignment can be incredibly helpful as well.  While these techniques are accessible and evidence-based, they often need to be combined with other strategies to address chronic anxiety fully.

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Aromatherapy for Anxiety Relief

Essential oils like lavender or bergamot can have calming effects and can also help to keep a person present in the moment.  Aroma therapy is a great tool for people who struggle to stay present or have a history of dissociation as it activates a sense that brings the attention back to the moment. These can be excellent adjuncts, especially during stressful situations, but they rarely resolve deeper physiological or psychological contributors to anxiety.

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Natural Supplements for Anxiety

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Herbs and nutrients can provide incredible support for a stressed nervous system and help it return to calm, both in the short term and over time when used appropriately.

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Best Herbal Remedies for Anxiety

Herbs such as ashwagandha, valeriana officinalis, scutellaria spp, and Melissa officinalis, and lavender can be great support for the nervous system. Each herb has a range of effects almost like a personality and herbs can also work synergistically.  Naturopathic physicians are not providing protocol driven treatment plans, but evaluate whether an herb or supplement suits your unique physiology and situation and combine it with other interventions to maximize safety and effectiveness.  For example, if a woman was anxious and having menstrual issues, she would likely receive different herbs than someone who was anxious and dealing with a post viral syndrome or with elevated blood sugar.

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Other Vitamins and Supplements to Consider

Magnesium, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D cal all support stress resilience.  Taurine and L-theanine can also be supportive. Again, supplement use is most effective when guided by lab tests or individualized assessment rather than a generic recommendation.  If taking medications, herbs and supplements should be carefully chosen to avoid potentially dangerous side effects.

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Lifestyle Changes for Managing Anxiety

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How we live our day to day lives - how we think, relate, and treat the body - has a tremendous impact on anxiety.  This is the foundation of our health and no anxiety treatment plan would be complete without addressing these things.  That being said, health includes flexibility and resilience and is not about being perfect.  At Graceful Mind Institute we understand both the power of lifestyle change and the stress and anxiety it can sometimes stir up.  Our job is to work with you as a partner through education and coaching to support you in a way that works for you.  We are not here to judge, but to meet you and offer a hand.

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The Role of Diet and Nutrition

Inflammation, blood sugar swings, and nutrient deficiencies can all exacerbate anxiety. Holistic approaches look at diet not just for weight or fitness, but for its effects on mood, cognition, and hormone balance.  It was thought for a long time that anxiety and depression were due largely to neurotransmitter imbalances, but what has been recently understood much more clearly is that there is frequently an inflammatory component in both the digestive tract and the brain when chronic anxiety and depression take hold.  Adjustments to nutrition can help to calm that inflammatory pattern while providing the nutrition the brain and the body need.  

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The Benefits of Exercise

Physical activity reduces stress hormones, improves sleep, and can shift mood. Holistic care also emphasizes choosing exercise that fits the person’s lifestyle, and avoiding burnout or overexertion, which can worsen anxiety.  Physical activity is one of most researched lifestyle interventions to decrease anxiety and its impact can be profound.  Movement doesn't have to look like going to the gym and it may change based on how tired you are, what phase of life you're in, or if you're a menstruating female, even where you are in your cycle.

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Getting Quality Sleep

Sleep has been shown to be a major factor in anxiety.  While sleep disturbances are both a cause and a symptom, addressing anxiety is always easier if sleep is well supported. Natural interventions like sleep hygiene, circadian alignment, and gentle supplements (e.g., magnesium or herbs) can support improved sleep and therefore reduced anxiety, but sometimes are not enough.  At these times a deeper dive into what is causing the sleep disturbance - a hormone imbalance, mycotoxin exposure, sleep apnea, blood sugar dysregulation, etc. - can be necessary to get the sleep the brain and the body need to feel calm and balanced.

 

Therapy for Anxiety: When Professional Help Is Needed

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If anxiety is impacting your day to day life - stealing energy, decreasing your resilience, leading to irritability, or difficulty concentrating, making it hard to be present with those you love, or causing you to miss out on joyful moments, we strongly encourage you to seek help.  This is especially true if you’re already doing the basics.  Been to therapy and it didn’t help?  Have tried medication and it wasn’t quite right? Dr. Westaway at Graceful Mind Institute is here to support you in new ways.  You deserve to feel some joy and peace and connect with the beauty of life, even (or perhaps especially) when it’s a bit messy.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety

CBT helps people identify and change unhelpful thought patterns and is often touted as one of the most effective treatments for anxiety as far as research is concerned. While effective for many, cognitive approaches may not address body-based or trauma-related sources of anxiety, which is why a holistic strategy often includes somatic or experiential therapies.  CBT also cannot address the neurological implications of nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, or environmental exposures, which require other interventions.  CBT is typically very structured and while we use some CBT tools at Graceful Mind, we apply them more fluidly.

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The Benefits of Talk Therapy

Talk therapy allows individuals to explore emotional roots of anxiety. This can be tremendously helpful at understanding where certain emotional and thought patterns come from.  It can allow us to address unhelpful beliefs and rules someone may not even realize they carry.  For some people talk therapy is too intellectual and they need a more embodied approach to address the anxiety that feels as though it lives in the body.  Holistic care combines psychological, physiological, and environmental strategies, recognizing that some anxiety stems from unresolved trauma or life stressors that require more than a cognitive fix, but breaking the cognitive and emotional patterns can often play a major role in getting unstuck.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Natural Remedies For Anxiety

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• Are they safe? There are many very safe natural approaches to anxiety, but even natural things can have side effects when not used in the right context or when dosed incorrectly.  Many herbs and nutrients have interactions with medications or can have additive effects that can be dangerous.  We strongly encourage you not just to talk with any doctor, but to work with a skilled practitioner who is trained to work with these tools.

• I tried some natural remedies once and they didn’t work, will holistic treatment be more effective?  No treatment is effective 100% of the time, but in general, a well chosen holistic course of treatment is chosen for your specific being and situation.  It is tailor made for you.  Because treatments are multipronged and more specific, they are often more effective.  Getting the right treatment at the right time matters tremendously.

• How would a provider decide which treatments to use?  This is based on a combination of lab work, patient history, provider skills, and patient preference.  At Graceful Mind Institute we are trained in ways to address anxiety cognitively, spiritually, and physiologically and we have multiple tools in each area.  We look for tools that fit the patient picture while also feeling resonant to the patient.  For example, for someone who has done a lot of talk therapy and is quite self aware, but is still needing more help, a somatic approach might make more sense, but for someone who is very uncomfortable with touch, we would likely not start with hands on bodywork.

• Does Dr. Westaway prescribe pharmaceuticals for anxiety?  As a licensed naturopathic physician in the state of Washington, Dr. Westaway has prescriptive rights to prescribe many pharmaceutical medications, including some, but not all medications used for anxiety and other mental health disorders.  While she does occasionally prescribe these medications, it is not the focus of her practice.  She is also happy to work with a patient's psychiatrist.

 

Dr. Westaway is a licensed naturopathic physician practicing in Washington State.  At Graceful Mind Institute NP PS, she provides holistic naturopathic care for those struggling with stress, overwhelm, anxiety, depression, and other challenges of nervous system regulation.  Dr. Westaway has taught at Bastyr University in the naturopathic program and is grateful to be able to serve the state in which lives by practicing both in person in the Snoqualmie Valley and virtually throughout Washington state.  If you are looking for care for your mind and spirit that takes your physical body into account as well, feel free to book now.  If you’d like to support our mission of making holistic mental health care more affordable, we are grateful for each and every donation as they all help to change lives.

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